God Among Mortals
by Saiyaness28
Summary: Nikolas Zorbas has lived with the ability to see spirits his whole life. Now a beautiful woman has appeared in his asylum cell claiming that he is actually a lost god of the underworld and Hades' son.
1. Chapter 1

God Among Mortals

Chapter 1: Disturbed Mind

"Let's go over the cards again shall we? I'll hold up the ink blot and you tell me what you see." Said the blond bimbo in the dorky glasses and white coat. She held up a card in her manicured hand. It was the same random splash of ink she'd been flashing over and over at me for the last hour.

"A fucking butterfly." I grumbled, exhaustedly. We'd been at this for so long. I was tired. I hadn't slept for three days straight.

"How about this one?" She sighed, taking another ink blot card from her file.

"Your sweet ass." I snickered with a cackle.

"Fine!" She hissed, throwing the file onto the table between us. "Then please, explain to me one more time why you tried to stab that lady the other day, Nikolas, and please give me a halfway reasonable explanation."

"For the last damn time." I huffed in irritation. I leaned forward as far as my restraints would allow. My arms were hand cuffed behind the chair I sat in. I had tried to punch the cop who was interrogating me before the psychologist chick arrived. "I see things, people who have been dead for a long time. Ghosts, I guess you'd call them. They talk to me too. They beg me to help them, tell me to do stuff for 'em. The other night this kid came to me, said that his step mom poisoned him. He wanted her to pay. He wouldn't leave me alone! So I got a knife and went to kill the broad, to get him to shut up. He wouldn't stop screaming and crying at me. What was I supposed to do? Besides, she was a murderer, no one anyone should miss, right?" The doctor looked taken aback by the coldness in my voice, and perhaps the shier madness that was spewing from my lips. She didn't get it. No one did. For as long as I can remember, I've been able to see and hear the spirits of the restless dead. They follow me and beg for help, help I rarely can give them, no matter how much I want to. The other day, I'd finally come to my breaking point. "Fuck it!" I'd said and rushed out the door with my switchblade in the hand pocket of my hoodie, off to kill the witch. I just couldn't take anymore of the begging and desperate wailing of that poor kid.

The psychologist sighed and jotted down something in her notebook. "You don't believe me. Do you?" I smirked, out of bitterness, not amusement. She didn't say anything. I looked up into the black eye sockets of the spirit that hovered over her. Blood stained the front of his shirt and He leered down at her, staring with a crazed hatred, mixed with some kind of demented fascination.

"Tell her, I still love her." The spirit moaned.

"There's a spirit attached to you." I said matter-of-factly. The doctor visibly jumped in her seat and stared blankly at me. I took this as a sign of interest and continued on. "He's a middle aged guy, looks like, stocky with short brown hair. There's blood on his shirt, looks like he was shot." At this her eyes grew bigger and she turned as white as the paper she was scribbling on. "He says he still loves you."

"That's not funny, Nikolas. Not funny at all." She snapped, jumping up from her seat so fast that the chair she'd been sitting in fell backwards with a loud crash.

"You know who he is, don't you?" I smiled darkly, eyeing her knowingly.

"Good day, Mr. Zorbas. I'll be giving my report to the authorities." She said, quickly striding across the room to the door.

"Oh, Miss Doctor, by the way." I began, turning my head to continue looking at her. "He says he still watches you….all the time."

Her blue eyes turned to steel as she glared furiously at me. "Once the police read my report, you will never see the light of day again." She snapped and slammed the door behind her.

Like some kind of oracle or creepy old lady with a crystal ball, her premonition came true. After several more appointments with several more shrinks, I was diagnosed as a delusional schizophrenic and thrown into an asylum for the criminally insane. And there I'd stay until I either snapped out of my psychosis or they carried me out in one of those nifty glorified trash bags.

I laid on my piss stained mattress, staring up at the equally stained ceiling. I wasn't sure if the puddle I was looking at was from water damage or blood. The stain seeped across the ceiling like a cancer, effecting everything with a rotten scent. My tiny cell was filthy and frigid. It always smelled of piss and moldy bread. If I listened hard enough I could just hear the squeaks of the rats in the wall beside my head through the screaming and wailing of my neighbors and the spirits that surrounded me. "Please" they begged. "Take us to the misty land. Lead us there so that we may rest." They screamed.

I folded the sides of my pillow over my ears. "Shut up! What the hell do you want me to do? I'm stuck in here! I can't take you anywhere!" I yelled. Still they persisted. I turned my back to them and curled into a fetal position on the mattress. "They're just in my head. Just in my head. They're not real." I chanted over and over again, trying to persuade my brain out of the craziness it had fallen into, but it did absolutely nothing.

There was a knock at the heavy led door and I jolted upright at the sound. The spirits scattered and dissipated, giving me a moment of peace. "It's visiting hours, Zarbos. Your mother's here to see you." Said the guard. He opened up the door and escorted me out into the visitor's area. I'd sit in one chair, my mother would sit in another across from me. There'd be a plate of Plexiglas between us and we'd get to talk through a phone. I wouldn't get to touch her, wouldn't get to feel her warmth as she embraced me. I was a full grown man, but hell…I wanted my mommy.

I took my usual seat across from her and picked up the phone. "Hi, Mom." I greeted with a small smile, after I stared at her for a moment. She seemed to look a little older, a little more haggard with each visit, as if my being here was zapping her of her youth. Joan Zarbos was once a very beautiful woman, she could have had any man she wanted, but she chose to marry an abusive drunkard who beat her for a few years then ran off with some hussy, leaving her childless and alone. After a couple of years of solitary living, a kind of miracle happened. A baby boy appeared one day, in her bed, sleeping by her side. That baby was me. Little did she know that that icy eyed child would become the demented soul that now sat across from her and stared at her through a film of shatter proof glass.

"You look so thin. Are they not feeding you enough?" She asked in her motherly way.

"They feed me just as much as everyone else here." I said, which was true, but that wasn't very much.

"Sweetheart, don't you worry. I'm sure you'll get out of here soon. You just need to take your medicine and go to your therapy treatments. The doctors I'm sure can fix you. I'm certain of it." She said, reassuringly, but with blind trust.

I sighed and held my head in my hand. My head was throbbing. I had a suicide victim screaming in my left ear. "I don't think they can help me, mom. I don't believe I'm crazy. These things that I see. They're just too real. I've been taking medicine my whole life to make the visions stop and to quiet the voices but I only see more of them and the voices have just gotten louder. I don't think all the medicine and therapy in the world can help me."

"Don't talk like that. You will get better and you will be free." She said, her olive green eyes bright with confidence. She smiled warmly at me and I smiled back.

"Why do you sound so sure?" I asked, quirking a dark eyebrow.

"I've been praying to the old gods." She smirked. "Every day. Athena, in particular." Joan was an odd one. She was a true Greek, still believing in all the old traditions and religion. She had a small shrine to Athena in her house. She prayed regularly, sometimes obsessively. "My prayers have worked miracles before. The gods gave you to me. I know that they can help you now as well."

"Whatever you say, mom, but I won't be holding my breath."

After visiting hours were up, I had to go to a therapy session. I was led into the shrink's office and was surprised to see the lady doctor from before there, sitting cross legged in a leather chair. She glared at me over the bridge of her glasses. "Please sit down, Mr. Zarbos." She said, motioning towards the couch. I sat down and she sent away my guard.

"Never thought I'd see you again, doc. You weren't too happy with me, last time I saw you." I said.

"Let's get right to the point." She said. "Who told you about Walter?" She asked, eying me carefully.

"Who's Walter? You talking about that spirit that's clinging to you?" I asked, meeting the spirit's dead eyes. He was practically draping himself over her, wrapping his arms around her neck.

"Yes." She confirmed with a nod.

"I don't know a lot about him, only what I can see and hear. Who is he?"

She fidgeted in her chair uncomfortably. "When I first started my practice, this patient of mine formed a…inappropriate attachment to me. He stalked me for a time and one day he attacked me in my house. My neighbors called the cops and they were forced to take him down to save my life."

"Tough break." I said. "Even though he's dead he hasn't let go of you yet. He still wants you, apparently."

"You are still convinced that you have some sort of supernatural ability?" She inquired, cocking her blond head to the side.

"I don't know what it is. I've just always had it. I deal with it. I live with it. I get by. Maybe I'm crazy, but then if it's all in my head, how can I describe your ghost so well that you get that look of fear and dread in your eyes?"

"Could be just a clever guess. You do seem more intelligent than most patients I've met." Said the doctor with a melancholy tone.

"If I were guessing, don't you think I would have dropped the act by now? Don't you think I want to leave here and go home? I wouldn't be putting my mother through all of this if I could help it." I grumbled. I sat up and ran my hand over the bristles of my very short black hair. It used to be much longer. The bangs used to hang in my eyes in an annoying way. Now, however, I sported the traditional psych patient's buzz cut.

"Disturbed minds are rarely rational, Mr. Zarbos." She said, snottily. I'd never lay a hand on a woman, but I admit I was tempted at that moment.

I got up from the couch, glaring angrily at her. "If that's all the pointless questions you have for me today, then I'd like to go back to my cell now. I have walls to stare at."

"Very well. Thank you, Mr. Zarbos. I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you in the future. There's a lot of work to be done with you." She looked up at me with pity in her eyes. "You're a very sick young man."

My lips twitched in irritation and before I could stop them, the flames spilled out. "Whatever. You keep telling yourself that I'm fucked up if that's what's gonna help you sleep better at night, but the fact still remains. Walter hasn't left you and one day you are gonna join him in the sweet embrace of death. You'll be together forever in hell." I smiled mockingly. "Won't that be lovely." I laughed at her gawking expression and stormed out of the room.

The guard led me back to my cell and I privately laughed at the lady doctor as I stared back up at the yellow-orange stain on the ceiling above my mattress and listened to the rats scurry along the dusty floor.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Trying Ain't Easy

Soft tresses of golden hair fell over her shoulders. The ends brushed against my cheek. Her blue eyes were large like a child's, filled with a strange turmoil. Tears fell down her cheeks and splashed against my face. The beautiful woman staring down at me, smiled sadly and brushed my hair away from my face. I didn't feel right. I was small and frail in her arms and I realized that I was no longer an adult but a infant. She cradled my head carefully and laid me down onto a bed beside a younger version of my mother. She slept on her stomach, with a tissue clutched in her hand, the skin around her eyes was puffy and red. The blond woman stood back from me. I could now see that she was wearing a flowing pale blue dress that looked like something a goddess from one of those old paintings of Greek mythology should wear. She clutched her hands together at her chest. More tears spilled down her cheeks and she quickly wiped them away, even as a sob racked her chest. "I'm so sorry." She cried and slowly faded away.

I jolted upright on the mattress. Sweat poured down my body. My breath escaped in gasps. "Not again." I sighed to myself, ignoring the presences around me. That had to be the millionth time I'd had that same dream. _Who was that woman? _I wondered. _I wish I knew. _

I did a few push ups to pass the time until a guard came to take me to get my day started. I took a group shower. Not going to go into that. Then, after changing into a fresh…er bright orange uniform I was taken into the cafeteria. Only the more sedate patients got to eat here. The others, who had more severe mental problems, rarely left their cells or padded rooms. I got my slop and my plastic cup of brightly colored pills and sat down at my usual table next to a girl I'd met here. Her name was Helena. I liked her a lot. She wasn't bad to look at either. She was small framed. She stood at only five feet and five inches. Her short black hair came down to her shoulders and a few bangs brushed across her forehead. It was a little tangled, but who cares? She looked even better than any of the sane girls I've dated in the past and she didn't have a drop of make up on. She had big brown eyes that turned me to putty whenever she batted her long eye lashes. Her mouth was adorned with full lips than tormented me endlessly. Sometimes I found myself staring at those lips as she spoke, wishing I could taste them, just once, but she was off limits. Unlike me, she actually had a real mental problem. Severe depression. Up until recently, she'd been on suicide watch 24/7. Apparently, she'd tried to hang herself a few months before I got here after threatening to shoot her pedophile of a dad. There was still a scar wringing her neck where the cable she'd used had broken the skin. Go figure I'd be drawn to the girl who wanted to join the land of the dead. "Hey, Helena." I greeted as I sat down with my tray.

"Hey. How'd it go at therapy yesterday? I heard you chewed Dr. Carlson out. Told her to go to hell or something like that." She smirked at me.

"Something to that effect." I chuckled. I still got all gleeful when I remembered her shocked face. "How'd it go with Dr. Roberts?"

"Same old. Same old. Life is the bee's knees, yadda yadda. I've heard it all already. Don't know why they have to repeat themselves. I'm getting better, aren't I?" She said.

"I think so. You're not nearly as gloomy as before." I said, taking a bite of the stale bread. As I chewed, I thought back to the first day I'd met her. She'd been sitting alone, not talking to anyone, just staring down at the table. She was practically mute.

" I feel better. I guess I have you to thank for that." She smiled closed lipped at me. "You've been really nice to me and you understand where I'm coming from, how I feel. It helps having you to talk to, instead of just the shrinks who don't understand much at all."

"Glad I could help." I smirked. "However, my therapy sessions don't come cheap. You're gonna have to pay me back with your body." I snickered.

She punched my arm gently with a laugh, saying I was an awful pervert and I nudged her back. "Thought I'd give it a shot, that's all. Can't blame a guy for trying."

She took a bite of her green apple and cleared her throat. "So, are you still seeing the spirits?" She asked, hesitantly.

I frowned at her. "Yea."

"The meds aren't helping at all?"

"Nope. They keep upping my dosage, but it's just getting worse and worse. Now I'm all doped up and getting screamed at by "the figments of my imagination." I laughed bitterly.

She paused for a moment and I shifted my eyes to watch her. She tucked some of her hair behind her right ear, bit her bottom lip and fidgeted in her seat. "For what it's worth, Nik, I don't think you're crazy. I believe you, when you say you see those things."

"You're the first." I scoffed.

I flinched in surprise as her hand came to rest over mine. Her hands were much smaller than mine and a hell of a lot softer. They felt like hot water against my cold, rough, worker's hands. "You don't belong here." She said as I watched her fingers rub back and forth across the back of my hand. "Nik, look at me." She ordered and I quickly fulfilled her request. "I know that it'll be hard for you, but try to ignore the spirits. If you can do this, then maybe they'll let you out of here."

I turned my hand over and linked my fingers through hers. "I don't know if I can. The voices. They're so loud. No matter what I do, I can't block them out."

She squeezed my hand and leaned a little further towards me. "You can try, can't you? My treatments are going fairly well. They say I may be able to go home soon. I don't want to leave you behind, knowing that you may never get out."

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try. I'll try for you, Helena." I said, in a strained whisper. She was so beautiful. So sweet. How could I not try for her?

She flashed me a grin then gave me a swift peck on the cheek before anyone could notice it. "Thanks Nik. That's all I want." She bit her lip and I imagined impishly what it would be like to do the same. "Maybe…once we're both out…we could go on a date. Catch a movie or something?" She asked, nervously.

"You're asking me out?" I smirked devilishly. "You are cheeky."

"Well _you_ were never gonna do it." She laughed, with a playful shove.

"I have a better idea." I said and leaned forward so that I could whisper the rest in her ear. "You could move in with me." I noticed her skin shiver as I whispered in her ear and wondered if she liked me being this close to her.

She gave me a shocked, wide eyed look. "Are you serious?" She asked.

"If you want." I smiled. "Of course, I'd have to actually get a place first."

She let go of my hand and ran it through her hair. I watched as her fingers pulled the inky locks up and watched as they floated back down to her shoulders. I couldn't help but stare in fascination at every move she made. "I don't think so, Nik. I think we need to be in an actual relationship before we make that big a move. Don't you agree?"

I shrugged my shoulders and grinned playfully. "Aren't we in a relationship now? I mean we talk about nothing important in particular over food that can hardly be considered a meal and what about the hand holding and the eye contact? We're practically going hot and heavy."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh yea, the eye contact. Talk about steamy." She laughed. "We'll take it slow. Date for a while. Then we'll see about moving in together." She knocked back her pills and started gathering up her trash and piling it onto the trey. "Hell, we might even get hitched Vegas style."

"As long as I get to touch your naughty places, I'm good." I chuckled. She got up and knocked me in the head with her elbow as she passed behind me. I rubbed the back of my head and watched her walk away. God I loved that bounce in her step.

So for the next few weeks, I surprised everyone, including myself. I suppressed the urge to yell back at the spirits, no matter how loudly they screamed at me. I didn't punch anybody. I kept my temper in check. When I went in for therapy sessions I lied to the docs and told them that I wasn't seeing the spirits or hearing voices any more. A miracle! I called it. I behaved like the model patient, soft spoken and, dare I say, polite. Proving for once and for all that we humans will do just about anything for love. It's women, I tell you. They drive men to do stupid things, which leads me to the down fall of the epic plan.

I just wanted to have a gorgeous, warm woman to crawl into bed next to when I got out. Was that too much to ask? Why did everything have to be so difficult for me?

I was in the cafeteria, headed towards our table. I was feeling somewhat euphoric, even though I hadn't slept in almost a week and I looked like hell. Every day of seemingly sane behavior got me closer to my goal, going home with Helena. Some giddiness rose up at the thought that perhaps today I could get some more eye contact or maybe even another peck on the cheek. If I played my cards rights she might keep her lips pressed to my cheek for longer than a millisecond.

However, as I drew closer to the table, I saw another inmate talking to her. He was holding her wrist, keeping her in her seat, and by the disgusted look on her face, I could tell that he was making a pass at her. He was a big, stocky guy, built broadly with a large gut. He was a lot bigger than me, but I went at him anyway. My blood was boiling in my veins. How dare he touch her? Helena was mine, and mine alone! Without warning, and with all my might, I slammed my metal trey against the back of his head.

He let go of Helena and turned around, glaring at me. He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the floor. I spun my legs, and connected a blow to his stomach. He dropped me and he doubled over. I threw a right and left punch. His teeth went flying through the air as his blood stained my knuckles. I got one more kick into his face, before some guards were able to pull me off of him.

Later that night, I learned the full extent of what I'd done. My court-appointed attorney came by to speak with me. He was a slick customer. Good looking and well dressed. I was sure he was very good at his job. He struck me as someone who was very good at lying.

"Mr. Zarbos, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

"And what is that?" I growled as I twisted and squirmed in my straitjacket.

"Mr. Baritoni, the guy you attacked earlier today, has died."

My eyes went wide and my breath caught in my throat. "What? That can't be right! I just beat him up! I didn't mean to kill the guy!"

"You fractured his skull. It caused some irreversible brain damage. I'm sure that you didn't mean to kill him, but that is what has happened, sir." He said calmly. His tone and the way he looked at me, like a rabid dog who should be put down, grated at my nerves.

"What does this mean?" I asked, bowing my head in defeat. It was gone now, that blissful life I dreamed of. I'd never have Helena. She probably wouldn't even speak to me again, let alone visit me here from time to time. She'd get out soon and go about her life. She'd forget about me eventually.

"Your sentence has doubled and you no longer have the chance of being discharged under medical improvements. The courts have deemed you too unstable for public safety." He picked up his briefcase and stood up to leave. "I'm sorry, sir, but there isn't anything more that I can do for you. Your stay here will be permanent."

The closing of that door when he left was the loudest thing I have ever heard in my life.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Answered Prayers

I rocked back and forth as I sat in the corner of the padded room they'd thrown me into. I twisted and thrashed, but the buckles on the straitjacket held fast. "Fuck!" I growled, kicking my legs in the air. It was no use. I flopped onto the floor, like a suffocating fish, gasping with exhaustion.

"Help us! Please! Take us to the other world!" The spirits around me moaned desperately. The room was crowded, with just one flesh and blood body and a few dozen, bloody, bloated, and hollowed eyed ghosts.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I can't help you! I can't do shit! Leave me alone!"

"Please! Help us! Help us!" They moaned on and on. They reached their grey hands towards me and groped at my skin. Their touch was icy and their fingers, waxy. I squeezed my eye shut to block them out.

Suddenly the door swung open, letting in some light in the dim, white room. "Make it quick, girl. If the others catch me letting you in here, I could loose my job." Said the guard in a whisper. I twisted my body so that my knees were under me and pushed myself up into a sitting position with my head.

Helena walked through the doorway. She looked different. Her hair was combed and fixed. She was wearing a little bit of makeup and she wasn't wearing the bright orange uniform anymore, but a girly, yellow sundress with sunflowers printed all over it. The hem skirted along the floor and as she moved towards me, her sandaled feet peeked out at me. She had smaller feet than I first thought. They were small and dainty like her hands.

"Nik." She sighed sadly.

I lifted my eyes sheepishly to meet hers. "Helena….I…" I stopped and closed my mouth. There was nothing I could say to her to make this right. I had tried so hard to do what I had to do to be free of this place, but my temper got the best of me. Just like in every other aspect of my life, I was a failure.

Tears glistened in her brown eyes and fell down her cheeks like rain drops. She dropped down on her knees, so quickly I was afraid she'd hurt herself. She threw her arms around my neck and sobbed into my shoulder. "You idiot!" She groaned. "Why did you do that? Why?"

"You said it all." I answered. "I'm stupid. When I saw him bothering you….I just acted. I didn't think." My throat ached as I tried to hold back the bitter tears. She finally had her arms around me and I couldn't hold her, couldn't wrap my arms around her in turn. I could barely feel the warmth of her body through the damn straitjacket. That was the worst part. I was tired of being cold all the time.

"I'm being discharged today." She said against my throat.

I shut my eyes against the assault of shier pain that rushed through me then.

"I know that it doesn't mean anything, but I'm sorry, Helena. God." I groaned in agony. "You don't know how sorry I am."

She pulled slightly away from me so that we were face to face, but kept her arms around my neck. "I'm sorry too." She whispered as another tear streamed down her cheek. "I don't want to go home without you." She shook her head and tears scattered through the air. I felt a few splash against my face. "I don't want to think of you being here, alone in the dark."

"It's my own fault. Please, don't cry over me anymore. I'm not worth it." I begged her, hanging my head in shame.

She took my head in her hands and made me look at her. I sucked in a breath at the feeling of her soft, hot touch. "Don't say things like that."

"I'm a screw up. Always have been." I shifted my eyes away, unable to meet her gaze. "Who was I kidding? Wanting to be with you? You deserve a lot better than me."

She jerked my head towards hers and suddenly her mouth was on mine, soft and hot like her hands. I could taste the strawberry flavor of her lip gloss, smell the scent of lilacs that saturated her skin. She made me want more. I parted her lips and my dry tongue went to meet hers. My eyes rolled in my head, swimming in pleasure as we kissed each other enthusiastically. Her kiss was amazing but it was also bitter sweet. For I knew it would be the first and the last. As our lips parted ways, she laid one final kiss on my bottom lip. Our eyes met again and all I wanted to do was rip my straitjacket apart and seize her. I wanted to have her and keep her with me forever, but then as the background of the padded cell came back into view I reminded myself that that was not fair. She needed to go and live happily somewhere with someone who was better fitted for her, have lots of babies and live in a nice house with a picket fence and all. I wanted that for her.

"I love you, Nik." She whispered.

"You should go." I said, trying to ignore what she'd just said. Did she have to make this even more painful than it already was?

She frowned at me. "I love you." She repeated. Her eyes pleaded with me to return those words.

God, I wanted to say them, but I wouldn't allow my tongue to form the words. I couldn't. I couldn't tell her that. It would just make this harder for her. "Go, Helena. Please, just go home."

She nodded hesitantly. She kissed the corner of my mouth and I took that brief moment to suck in as much of her scent as I possibly could. I wanted to engrave it onto my brain. I never wanted to forget it. She rose to her feet and I watched her walk away. At the door she looked back at me for a final time. Then she was gone and I heard the very loud locking of the door. It boomed through the room, like a funeral bell. Loud, startling, and final.

I sat back and brought my knees up to my chest. I finally let go of the barrier I'd built up between my brain and my emotions and promptly burst into tears.

The souls of the tormented moaned and groaned and screamed in my ears. I stood at the door, banging my forehead against the hard metal. I'd broken the skin long ago. Blood oozed from the wound above my eyes and streamed down my face, staining the white straitjacket and the padded floor. Maybe if I hit my head hard enough, I'd knock myself out and the ghosts would finally leave me alone. I had my own shit to deal with. I didn't need theirs.

"Why are you doing that?" Asked a powerful sounding female voice. Sultry, husky, and oddly frightening. I turned my head slowly, expecting to see a ghost, but instead, there stood a beautiful woman. Dark hair was twisted about her head in a hair style that didn't belong to this century. Some of it fell over her right shoulder. Her green eyes shone like luminescent bulbs from her eye sockets. Her full lips pulled sideways in a smirk. Her olive skin seemed to glow slightly around the edges with a white light. She wore a silver breast plate, engraved with the image of an owl in flight and a short skirt that ended just above her knee. Sandals adorned her feet and silver bands wrapped around each wrist. She oddly reminded me of the statue of liberty in the way that she looked and the dignified power that surrounded her.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, squinting my left eye as blood flowed over it. "How'd you get in here?"

"You don't know who I am? That's surprising. You saw me everyday growing up, didn't you?" She said. She walked towards me. There was strength in the very way that she moved. She didn't walk like a woman, but like a soldier marching into battle.

"What?" I asked. The lady was freaking me out. "I think I would remember seeing a woman in full ancient Greek battle gear."

"I am Athena, goddess of wisdom, peace and war. Your mortal mother has a shrine to me in her household, does she not?"

I shook my head and laughed. "You think you're Athena? And they call me crazy. Did you escape from your cell?"

She reached over and wiped the blood out of my eyes. I jumped back from her touch with a yelp of pain. I felt like I'd just been electrocuted. Energy was pouring out of her skin. "So it is true." She said, smiling with intrigue shining in those green eyes as she stared down at her bloody fingers.

I pressed myself against the far wall, staring at her. Part of me said that this couldn't be happening and I really must be crazy, but another was ready to accept all this madness. It somehow felt right for me to be seeing this creature. "What are you babbling about? What's true?" I demanded shakily.

"You have the blood of a god. I can sense it. It's been muddled and changed somehow. Perhaps by an enchantment. Someone turned you mortal…mostly. It seems that your power is far too great for your mortal body to handle. Your mind is snapping. No wonder you've been cast into a place like this." She said.

"Huh?" I gasped, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

"You want to know why you see and hear spirits? It's because you are a god, Nikolas and a very powerful one at that." She licked my blood away from her fingers and she marched towards me. "The Olympians have heard rumors of a god living amongst the mortals, but we never believed it. We are aware of a few demigods, but not a full blooded god. I had my doubts about the stories. I never dreamed that they were true." She grabbed my face and tilted it from side to side. I didn't resist. This woman frightened me and electricity was seeping through my skin from her touch, setting all my muscles on fire. "But now that I have seen you and felt the holy energy in your blood, there isn't a doubt in my mind that you really are one of us." She grinned wolfishly. "And I have a pretty good idea who you belong to."

She released me and stepped into the center of the room. She took a small blade from her side and slashed it through the air. The blade cut a slice into the very fabric of time and space. The slit glowed with white light. "Come with me, Nikolas, and I'll take you back to where you belong."

"I'm not going anywhere with you! None of this makes sense. How can I be a god?" I asked, stubbornly twisting my hands into tight fists at my side and baring my teeth at her.

"All will be explained in due time. Now stop being pigheaded and step through the portal. Do you really want to stay here?" She asked, motioning to my bleak surroundings.

Hesitantly, I walked towards the slit, but before I could slowly ease myself into the void, Athena shoved me through.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Kingdom Come

I staggered through the slit Athena had slashed through the fabric of reality. I almost fell over. It was a miracle I'd stayed on my feet, her shove felt more like a man's.

"Let's get rid of that thing." Said Athena. She touched the back of my straitjacket and it disappeared without a trace. "Hurry up." She commanded, walking ahead, striding confidently towards a beautiful pearl white temple-like building, with towering columns. I shuffled my feet, as my eyes shifted to take in the beauty of my surroundings. I was in a heaven like place, at least what I imagined as heaven as a child. The ground we walked on was made of fluffy clouds, they billowed up around us, like mountains of whip cream. The only structure in sight was the temple. The sky was not like the sky I was used to down on earth, instead of a light blue it was a sunshine gold, so bright my eyes stung unmercifully. I looked over my shoulder at the ground I'd already covered, expecting to see black stains on the white cloud floor from my filthy feet. This world was so separated from the one I knew, so beautiful. I felt like I was soiling it's purity, by just being there.

When we finally reached the temple, Athena and I climbed a set of marble steps into a large room with floors that looked like they were made from a solid slab of gold. Several men and women were gathered in the room, all of them beautiful, perfect in every way. They wore ancient Greek clothing, the men in their togas and the women in gauzy dresses that flowed like soft mist over their supple skin. At the very center of the room sat a man in a golden throne. His hair was a shock of platinum blond, almost pure white. It was cut short and a finely kept beard bristled along his upper lip and across his jaw. His eyes were a vibrant gold that pierced through me as if they were knives. "Athena, who is that with you?" He asked, his intense eyes locking with my own. I felt him seep his way through my skin to judge my very soul. I almost shivered in fright, but I fought against it. I didn't want to appear weak to him. If I really was a god, then I had nothing to fear from him.

"This is Nikolas Zarbos, father, the man we've been hearing rumors about." She said.

My eyes widened when she called him father. I now realized who exactly this man was. Zeus, the king of the gods himself.

Zeus smiled at me as he rose to his feet. "So this is the god who's been living amongst the mortals." He chuckled as he stepped confidently towards me. "Funny, he looks almost entirely human, his godly essence is weak, but it is definitely there. I can see the power in his eyes."

"He doesn't belong to you, I hope." Said a woman, cattily. I looked passed Zeus at a gorgeous woman who was leaning against the throne with her arms crossed over her chest. Copper hair wound itself around her head and fell down her back in a cascade. The dress she wore was white with gold trim about the sleeves. A golden belt was tied around her curvy hips. Her eyes were a pretty green, but there was a darkness too in her eyes, a hatred greater than I've ever seen in someone before, and I've seen a lot of hate.

"No, Hera, love, he's not mine. Tell me, who does he look like to you?" He asked her with a smirk.

Hera pushed off the throne and sashayed towards me. She was even prettier up close, but still her hateful eyes put me off more than a little bit. She grabbed me by the cheeks and turned my head this way and that, I was a little nervous that she'd accidentally snap my neck. "No. Can't be." She muttered. "He can't be _his_ son."

"Why not? He looks just like him." Zeus' smirk grew and some white teeth peaked out between his lips. "You know…before he got that wife of his to cheer him up."

Hera finally released me and I delicately made sure that my jaw was still hinged correctly. "I just can't see Hades betraying Persephone like that. The man worships the ground she walks on."

"What about that whole Menthe episode?" Zeus reminded Hera of the nymph Hades had taken as a mistress for a time.

Hera rolled her eyes. "He learned from that mistake. He hasn't even looked at another woman since then, which is more than I can say for you, Zeus." She spat.

"Well you don't have to worry about your precious Hades' reputation. This boy is pure god." He said, chuckling at the glare he received from Hera. "And I believe I know who his mother is. Just look at his eyes."

Her eyes dance over my skin once more and a look of realization dawned on her face. "No." She gasped.

"Yes." Zeus laughed.

"Wait." I began, my eyebrows furrowing. "Are you saying that I'm Hades' son?" I scoffed. "You have to be joking."

"No joke." Zeus laughed. "I couldn't be happier about this really, I was beginning to think that my poor elder brother was sterile." His eyes glinted with amusement as he turned to return to his throne. "Speak of the devil." He took his seat just as a dark silver chariot, drawn by pitch black horses, burst through the cloud flood just outside the temple and halted abruptly to a stop.

Everyone, including me, turned to watch as a tall man, dressed in all black climbed out of the chariot and walked purposefully towards us. He stopped just as he got to the steps and looked back at the chariot. That was when I noticed the girl who still clung to it. She stared at me, her blue eyes wide and mouth agape, frozen. "Persephone, what are you doing? Come on." Ordered the man in black in a firm but kind voice. He waited for a moment, but she didn't budge so he went and took her hand. He practically dragged her to the temple.

The closer the pair got, the icier my blood became. I didn't need an introduction to know who the man in black was. His very aura said it all. While all the other gods shone with golden light, he was shrouded in a cloud of grey. His black hair was a little long and he brushed it back from his forehead. His pale skin made his ember-like eyes stand out even more. They were black, but there was a spark there, a fire. He was an intimidating figure, but it was the girl who's hand he grasped tightly, that I was most afraid of. I knew her face. I'd seen it countless times in my recurring dream. As I stared at her, I finally realized that my eyes were the same shade of blue as her own. Could she really be my birth mother? It seemed so absurd. She looked half my age.

"What is this about, brother? You know I should not leave my post, unless there is a crucial matter to attend to. Investigating a rumor hardly qualifies as…" He suddenly stopped speaking as his dark eyes fell on me. "Who is this?" He asked, obviously noticing the resemblance between us. I had noticed it as well. It was as if I were the living copy of this corpse before me, only our eyes were different.

"Hades, I'd like to introduce you to your son, Nikolas." Said Zeus, gesturing towards me.

"No, no you must be mistaken. I have no children." Said Hades, shaking his head in disbelief. "I've never slept with any mortal woman, you know this, Zeus."

"He isn't a demigod, Hades. He's a full blooded god." Hera chimed in, her deadly eyes bouncing between Hades and I.

"H-how can this be?" Hades stuttered, looking less like the king of the underworld and more like a man who'd just been blindsided.

Zeus snickered. "Why don't you ask your wife?"

Hades turned slowly and looked down at the young girl by his side. She visibly cringed under his gaze, drawing her arms close to her body. She could not meet his eyes. "What did you do?" Hades asked, in a horrified tone.

"I-I" Persephone had no answers. She burst into tears and ran passed all the gods, disappearing into another room.

Hades eyes narrowed as they drifted over to a red haired goddess in green. "You had something to do with this, didn't you, Demeter, you wretched old hag?" He hissed. "Not only do you have to keep my wife from me for half the year, but my own son too!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm just as shocked as you are." She snapped back.

Hades smirked bitterly. "Please, Persephone can't take a piss without you having to know about it." He turned on his heel and began to pace back and forth, looking like a panther who's cage was much too small.

"Tell him the truth, Demeter. We all know you had a hand in this. Don't you think Hades has the right to know why his son has been kept from him for thirty years?" Said Zeus. He leaned his cheek against his knuckles nonchalantly, the twinkle in his eyes told of how much of a kick he was getting out of all the drama.

Demeter let out a heavy sigh. "For what it is worth, I wanted her to keep the child."

"Right." Hades spat. "Keep him with you, perhaps."

Demeter shot him a glare but did not reply to his comment. "She didn't want you to know about him. She hid her early pregnancy from you, then gave birth to him when she was with me. As soon as he was born she turned him mortal and took him to a human woman to raise. I tried to talk her out of it, but her mind was set. She's become rebellious since she married you. She wouldn't listen to me."

"Why? Why would she want to hide him from me? I'm his father!" Hades demanded to know, his face crumpling with emotional pain.

Demeter's eyes narrowed and her lips curved into a triumphant smirk. "Maybe she's not as happy with your marriage as you'd like to believe."

At this, Hades' face fell. His expression became placid and he backed away from her without a word. He covered his mouth and turned away, his dark eyes dulled in thought.

"Enough squabbling. What are we going to do with him now that he's here?" Asked Hera.

"I'm going to take him home, of course." Said Hades. "I'll undo Persephone's spell and teach him everything that he will need to know to be a god of the underworld."

"Wait, I never said that I wanted to be a god." I protested. "I only came here to get out of the asylum. That's it."

"You are a god, Nikolas. You cannot change that. Forget the mortal world. The underworld is where you belong." Said Hades.

"I can't just forget. I have people there that I care about."

Hades' eyes darkened even further until no light reflected in their depths. "You will get to see them again, one day. All mortals come to my realm eventually."

I grit my teeth at that. "I have no desire whatsoever to go to the world of the dead."

"I can see that you are overwhelmed." Said Hades. He walked over to me and laid a cold hand on my shoulder. "But whether you like it or not, the world of the dead is your true home. You might as well accept it." He motioned towards the chariot. "At least come with me for now and we will discuss the matter of you staying later." He turned and looked towards a busty, blond goddess in a gauzy white dress that was so thin, she might as well have not been wearing it. "Aphrodite, go fetch Persephone for me. We're leaving."

Aphrodite nodded and rushed into the room Persephone had disappeared to. We waited several minutes until the two women finally reappeared. Aphrodite led the smaller girl to Hades and put her tiny hand in his larger one. I still couldn't get over how young my birth mother looked. She was a perpetual teenager, looking no more than fifteen or sixteen. She still looked scared. She didn't look back up at Hades. She bit her lip nervously and fidgeted with her pale blue skirt with her free hand. "I'm sorry, Hades." She squeaked.

"We will discuss this later." Hades boomed in his deep rich voice. He didn't sound overly violent, but he was definitely angry. I noticed Persephone flinch slightly.

I went with them to the chariot. Hades put Persephone at the front and stood behind her, holding the reins of the black horses at either side of her. I stood behind him. "I suggest that you hold on and hold your breath." He warned. I gripped onto the sides of the chariot and took a deep breath.

With a snap of reigns, the horses sped off. We soared through the air, then plunged downward, punching through the cloud floor, as if it weren't solid enough to walk on. Perhaps it never was. I understood then why he told me to hold my breath. We plunged at so great a speed that if I hadn't I would have suffocated. The air would have been punched out of me by the wind alone.

We fell from the heavens and before I knew it were inches away from crashing into the solid earth. I wanted to scream, but I bit my tongue and continued to hold in my breath. I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the death I was sure was coming.

My skin began to tickle, like there were many fingers touching me. Then a frigid cold began to radiate up from my toes. I opened my eyes hesitantly and I saw that we had simply fazed through the ground as if it were not there. And now we were flying over a bleak, cold landscape, all dark and grey like Hades himself. Below us flowed the River Styx, the souls of the dead on one side and an enormous gate on the other with a huge three headed dog chained at it's opening. Hades sat the chariot down just outside the gate and all three of us stepped out onto the dead land. I finally let go of the breath I was holding. I took in the air slowly. It smelled of water and cold earth. At least it didn't smell like rotting flesh, like I had always believed.

"Hey, Hades, who's the kid with the cult haircut?" Asked a male voice. I turned around and gawked at a talking skeleton who was steering a boat along the shore of the river. A ripped burial shroud draped across his bones. There were yellow lights in his eye sockets that looked funny to me and as he drew nearer to the shore I realized that they weren't lights, but coins.

"This is Nikolas. He's my son, apparently." Said Hades, glancing irritably at Persephone. The girl shivered and looked down at the ground.

"Is that so? Persephone, you really are a sly one, huh? Pulling the wool over our eyes like that." The skeleton chuckled. "Congrats, my man." He curled his bony finger at me. "Come here, boy. Let me introduce myself."

I was surprised by how un-freaked out I was by the living corpse, but then again I was used to dead people talking to me by now. As soon as I was close enough, the skeleton grabbed my hand and shook it until my arm felt like it was going to pop out of socket. "Welcome to the Underworld, Prince. Name's Charon, the Ferryman." He pointed to the other side of the Styx where a crowd of spirits gathered. "I take the spirits from point A." He rotated his wrist and pointed towards the gate. "To point B." He tapped his finger at the ridge of bone around his left eye socket. "All for a price of course. No coins, no ride." The three headed dog began to yap like an overgrown Chihuahua. "And the mutt is Cerberus. Don't be afraid of him. He may look mean, but he's just a big old lapdog. He's here to make sure nobody gets out."

"Don't you mean "make sure people don't get in?" I asked.

"No." Charon shook his skull. "I meant what I said. Think about it, the more people get in, the more souls we have and the stronger the Underworld becomes. Lot's of people have gotten in here before their time, but rarely have they ever left." He chuckled. "It's good that you are here, boy. There's so many souls pouring in here everyday, we can hardly keep up. It'll be nice to have some more help around here."

"Speaking of which, shouldn't you be working right now, instead of yapping your jaw off?" Hades growled.

"Yea, sorry boss." Charon waved at me as he pushed off the bank with his pole. "Back to work. See ya, Prince."

Charon rode away in his boat and the three of us went on through the gate. We entered Hades' twisted castle. It looked like it was made of black rock, and it rose into a peak like the point of a mountain. The inside was fairly well decorated, although gothic is not my style. Dark, velvet fabrics draped over the windows that overlooked the river. Silver candelabras lit the room in a dim, fiery light. In the dim light, there was the faintest sparkle all across the walls and I saw that the stone castle was in fact imbedded with jewels. Sometimes people forget that Hades is not only the ruler of the underworld, but the god of wealth as well.

We passed a painting of "Dante's Inferno" and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. The real Underworld couldn't be farther from what that man envisioned. Dante had imagined great pits of fire and eternal pain. The Underworld was in fact a very dark and cold place, and though the souls who could not pay Charon's fee were tormented with unrest for eternity, most of those that did experienced a afterlife of relative nothingness. Of course there were exceptions. People who pissed Hades off did not do well in the afterlife. They were all thrown into Tartarus, the one place in the Underworld that fits Dante's description of Hell. I recalled one myth in particular about a guy named Sisyphus who tried to cheat death by tricking Persephone into letting him go back to earth to yell at his wife for not following through with his final wishes. However, death, above all things cannot be cheated. When Hades found out about the trick he went to Sisyphus' house and dragged him back down to the underworld and sent him to Tartarus, where he was doomed to push a giant boulder up a hill every day, only to watch it role back down again every night. Hades' since of justice was actually kind of funny when you thought about it.

"You can stay in here, for the time being." Said Hades. He opened up a door and I walked into a large bedroom. I nearly cried when I saw the wide king sized bed. "I'll come talk to you in a bit about our arrangement." He clasped a large hand on Persephon's shoulder. She looked up at him sheepishly. "First, I have to have a little talk with your mother."

"Are there any conditions? I can't eat anything right? I don't want to bind myself here because I ate a chicken wing." I asked, smirking a little at the thought of a cursed barbeque wing. I bet it would be spicy.

"Despite your mother's meddling, you are my son, and as such, you are already bound here at some level. I'm sure you were able to see spirits back on earth, am I right?"

I nodded. Then a sudden realization shot a sharp pain through my stomach.

"Wait…" I shot a glare at him. "Did you trick me? Am I not going to be able to return to earth now that I'm here?" I demanded, my body trembling with rage.

Hades smirked and I saw where I got that expression from. "Don't worry. I'll explain everything to you later."

With that, He and Persephone went back out to the hall and closed the door behind them. I picked up a vase and hurled it at the door, smashing it to bits. "Fuck you, Hades!" I screamed as I collapsed onto the bed and hurled myself into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Sacrifice

The sound of Hades' raised voice, stirred me from the numbness of sleep. I sat up and waited a moment, listening. He was shouting, using every curse I knew and some that I did not. There was not just anger in his voice, but pain as well. Below his deep voice, I could hear Persephone's faintly. She was pleading with him, begging him for forgiveness. I could hear the tears in her voice and I felt my chest tighten. "That bastard better not be hurting her." I growled protectively. Even though it troubled me as to why she turned me mortal and gave me up, she was still my mother and a woman and I wouldn't just lay around while she got smacked around by an abusive husband.

My hands clenching into tight fists, I stalked down a dark hallway, following the sound of Hades' voice. Finally, I came to a pair of enormous, ornately engraved, silver doors. The doors were left open a crack, just wide enough for me to see through. I pressed myself against the wall and peered inside.

Persephone was sitting on a big bed with her hands folded tightly in her lap. Her husband paced back and forth in front of a fireplace. Again he reminded me of an irritated animal in a cage, ready to maul his master for his freedom. "I don't understand." Hades growled.

"I'm sorry." She squeaked, tears falling freely.

"Stop saying that!" He yelled, the whole underworld shook at the sound of his deep voice. "Is that all you have to say for yourself? I'm sorry? I don't want to hear it!" He approached her and I readied myself to launch at him if he raised his hand to strike her, but he did not. "I want to know _why_, Persephone!" He added.

Persephone was quiet for a few moments. She'd taken the silver circlets off her head and her hair now fell freely around her pretty face. She kept her blue eyes averted, unwilling and perhaps too frightened to meet his black gaze.

"Was this some kind of revenge for what I did to you when I first brought you here?" He asked, almost timidly. His voice was much weaker than before and his stern face had crumpled in despair.

"No" She assured him, shaking her head fervently. She jumped to her feet and went to wrap her arms around him but he backed away, flinching from her touch. He stared at her hands like they were venomous vipers until she dropped them back down at her sides, sighing with defeat. "I have long forgiven you for that." She said softly.

"Then why?" He demanded, his eyes pleading.

Persephone bit her lip and thought in silence for another few minutes. "I didn't want him to be trapped here…like I am."

At this, Hades looked like he'd been struck. He staggered back, with pain written all over his face. He grimaced at her and turned away to stare into the fire. I could not see his face then, but I was sure that the flames could be seen dancing across the glossy surface of his ebony eyes. "Are you really so unhappy? Do you hate being with me so much that you would deny me my own child? I never thought you to be that cruel,…Kore."

Persephone flinched as the name left Hades' lips. Now she too looked like she'd been slapped across the face, without Hades ever laying a finger on her. I wasn't sure what the significance of the name was, only that it is another name for Persephone in the mythology I was taught by my mother. Obviously, judging by Persephone's horrified expression, it was a bad sign.

"It is not like that at all, Hades. It is not you that I hate." She tried to explain. She rushed to him and tried to embrace him once again, but he pulled his arm away from her touch and stalked to the other side of the room. "It is this place I despise!" She cried, the tears coming in torrents. "I hate the darkness and the cold! I didn't want my baby to be tied here forever, never able to see the sun or feel a cool breeze on his skin. I wanted better for him! Don't you understand? If I had told you about him, you would have kept him! You would never have let me give him up!"

"Hades kept his back to her but turned his head slightly to glance her way. "The Underworld is an extension of me, Kore." Persephone flinched again and started crying even harder. "To hate the Underworld is the same as hating me. What's more, you kept my son from me for thirty years. I don't care what your reasons were…I can not forgive you for that."

Persephone fell to her knees, sobbing, and grabbed at his legs. "Hades, please!" She pleaded, desperately.

"If you hate my world so much, then perhaps it is best that I send you back to your damned mother. Go back to your upper world, Kore. Go back to your sun and your meadows. Go back to prancing around with those silly, air headed nymphs, and following your mother around like a little dog. That's what you want right? Go, if it will make you happy. I'll set you free forever if it will please you." He yanked his legs free of her hands. "I should have known you never loved me at all." He turned briskly on his heal and stormed away through another door, slamming it behind him.

After waiting until Persephone's sobs were the only sounds I could hear, I opened the door wider and walked slowly towards Persephone's crumpled form.

"Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling at her side.

Her head shot up in surprise, and she stared at me with wide, shocked eyes. "Nikolas?" She breathed my name.

"I heard him yelling. I was worried he was going to hurt you." I explained.

"He would never lay a hand on me in anger." She said softly. "And I have hurt him more than he could ever hurt me."

"Did you really mean what you said? Did you give me up just so I wouldn't be trapped in the Underworld?" I asked, timidly.

Persephone sat back on her butt and pulled her knees up to her chest. She rested her cheek against them as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I hate it here. The one good thing is Hades himself. He is not usually like this. He's never yelled at me like this before, but then again he has he ever been this angry with me before. He's usually very loving and sweet towards me and he's very protective. He doesn't even like it when Charon looks at me. But I have wounded him greatly. He's always wanted to be a father, but I denied him that pleasure. I have tried to explain myself, but he's just too hurt to understand. I do not see him and the Underworld as a single being, but separate. I hate his kingdom, but I love him. I sent you away to keep you out of the Underworld, not to keep you away from him, but I had to keep you a secret in order for you to keep your freedom." She stopped and looked around at her surroundings. "I am free for half the year, with my mother, but since you are Hades son,…you would not be, you'd be forever bound here, never able to leave without Hades' permission. Even when if you were able to go to the upper world, the darkness that evelopes the world of the dead would follow you. Your skin would remain icy cold and you wouldn't be able to feel anything, no warmth, and no soft touch. To that world you would be as the dead. Only here can you be alive. How could I want that for you?" She sighed heavily. "He does not understand. He thinks that I did this, because I secretly hate him and because I want to get back at him for what he did to me in the beginning. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I love him. I love him with all that I am. Perhaps…more than I should." She buried her face in her arms and sobs racked her small frame. "Oh, but it doesn't matter now! He's sending me away!"

I rubbed her back in a fruitless attempt to soothe her. "Tell you what, I'll try to talk him out of it tomorrow when he comes to talk to me about the living arrangements. Maybe with some urging from me along with your feminine whiles…" I choked back a gag at the thought of my parents "doing it," "we can get him to reconsider."

She stopped crying and looked up at me with a weak smile. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Her nose was running and wisps of her golden hair was sticking to her face. At that moment she didn't look at all like the goddess she was and all the more like a heartbroken teenager. "Thank you, so much, Nikolas." She said, hugging me tightly.

"Call me, Nik." I whispered as I hugged her back.

After a long while, I was able to calm her down and she walked with me back to my room. "By the way, why has Hades started to call you Kore? Isn't your name Persephone?" I asked. It had bothered me, the way she reacted when he called her that name.

She frowned at me, sadly. "Kore is what my mother called me as a pet name before I was married to Hades. "It means maiden. For him to call me that, basically means that he no longer sees me as his wife. He's beginning to sever his ties to me, distancing himself."

The next day, I was woken again by a pounding at the door. I dragged myself out of bed and staggered to the door. I cried out when I opened it and saw the person standing there. "Holy shit!" I yelled. There stood the grim reaper, hooded cloak, scythe and all.

"Forgive me if I frighten you, Lord Nikolas, but I was told to retrieve you." He said in a earth rumbling voice. The flesh on the hand that held the scythe and adorned his mouth and chin was a milky white. Red eyes blazed at me, from within the darkness of the hood, chilling me to the bone.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, trying not to sound like I was about to wet myself.

"Thanatos." He replied, bowing lowly.

"The god and personification of death, right?" I inquired. I was now thankful that my mother had spent so much time teaching me about all the gods, even the lesser ones.

Thanatos nodded his head slowly. He stepped to the side and waved his hand over the hall. "Come, your father wishes to show you around the realm."

"Can I wash up a little before that? I haven't showered in a few days. I think. It may have been a week." I muttered. Thinking back, I didn't think that I had touched water and soap since I killed that guy back at the asylum.

"Of course, sir. As you wish, sir." Thanatos said, bowing over and over.

"Why are you doing that?" I asked as I walked over to a wardrobe.

"You are Hades' son and prince of the Underworld. I must show you proper respect." He said.

"Charon didn't do that." I said, remembering the odd skeleton man.

Thanatos' voice dropped in pitch. "Charon is an idiot."

I chuckled. "Well you don't have to be so formal. Being called sir kind of freaks me out a little. I'm not used to it. Just call me by my name."

"I can't do that, sir. Your father would castrate me." He said with all seriousness.

"Are you, the reaper of souls, scared?" I cocked an eyebrow and smirked Hades' smirk.

"Hades terrifies me." He replied. "I may be the reaper of souls, but he is their keeper and their judge. My power is just a speck of dust compared to his. It is best not to cross him, as many of those in Tartarus now realize. No one screws with the King of Death and gets away with it."

"Are you serious?" I asked myself, only half listening to Thanatos' rant about the power of Hades. "There's nothing in here but black togas. I am _not _wearing a dress."

"You would prefer current human clothing?" Inquired Thanatos. "I can ask one of the nymphs to fetch some for you."

"That would be nice. Thanks." I said.

Thanatos poofed away in a cloud of black and reappeared at the door. "I will send someone right away. Go ahead and bathe. I'll have your clothes ready for you when you are finished." He poofed away again and the door shut quietly by itself.

I walked into the bathroom that adjoined my room. I was greeted with the same boring black, silver and red color scheme. I swear I half expected for Hades to turn out to be a vampire. Obviously he had the same tastes as Dracula. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had some indoor plumbing. Evidently, only their clothing styles remained like those of ancient Greece. I filled the tub with hot water while I stripped out of the dirty asylum uniform and stepped into the water. I relaxed into it, feeling my cold body melt. It really was freezing in the Underworld. My bare feet were frozen. Stinging pain shot up my legs as they thawed.

I found some soap sitting on the rim of the tub and promptly began to scrub it over my skin. The dirt washed away, turning the water darker by the second. When my skin was finished I picked up a bottle of what looked like shampoo and scrubbed the minty smelling stuff into the bristles of my short hair. When I had worked it up to a foam, I slipped my head under the water to rinse it out.

Underneath the water, I thought I heard someone enter the room. I opened my eyes a little and could see the faint blur of a woman's face. I gasped as I jackknifed up into a sitting position, gasping and sputtering water. The woman yelped and jumped away from me in surprise.

"What the hell!" I yelled, gawking at her. "What are you doing here?"

"F-forgive me, my lord." The girl stuttered. "Thanatos told me to give these to you." She said. With shaking hands she held out the clothes. Of course they had to be all black. I grimaced at the familiar sight of leather and said a silent prayer inside my head that it wasn't the pants. The last thing I wanted was to look like an elderly rock star from the 80s.

"Just put them over there." I said nodding my head towards the obsidian counter top as I tried to hide my manhood from her with my hands. I felt my face heat up, indicating a blush and I inwardly cussed at myself for not locking the damn door. I watched the girl walk over to the vanity. She had very long white hair, that hung strait down her back. She wore a white dress of extremely shier fabric. It was not quiet as bad as Aphrodite's get up, which was hardly even visible, but I could faintly see the curves of her body when she moved. The dress flowed with her movements, clinging to her pale flesh. I was becoming increasingly aware of just how long I'd gone without any action. Hopefully she would not notice.

She laid the clothes down carefully on the vanity and turned slowly towards me. "Will you need anything else, my lord?" She asked in a lyrical voice. I saw now that her lips were pale pink and her eyes a deep ocean blue. The whites of her eyes had a bluish tint to them as well, oddly enough. Her ears were slightly pointed. The tips of them peaked out through her hair. She reminded me of an elf. She reached up and tucked some of her hair behind a pointed ear in a girlish manor and I noticed that her fingers were slightly webbed.

"No that will be all." I muttered. _For the love of Zeus, please leave! _I thought desperately.

To my relief, she bowed quickly and hurried out of the room.

Thankfully, the leather turned out to be a jacket. It still wasn't my style, but it was at least bearable for me. Apparently, gods of the Underworld had to look like a Hot Topic had thrown up all over them. When in Rome. I dressed in the black jeans and skull and crossbones t-shirt, and the leather jacket and slipped on the combat boots.

Finally dressed, I left my quarters. Thanatos and the elf looking girl were waiting outside for me.

"Go ahead." Thanatos urged the elf with a nudge.

"Forgive me." She blurted, bowing lowly till her head touched her knees.

I found that perversely impressive. I hid the smirk that threatened to appear as I tried to rid myself of dirty thoughts. This girl was pretty in an odd way, but she still wasn't Helena. No one could hold a candle to her. "Don't worry about it. No harm done." I said, finally.

"I told her to give the clothes to you, but I didn't mean for her to barge in while you bathed. She's new and nymphs lack common sense." Said Thanatos, eyeing the girl with annoyance.

"Really, don't worry about it." I repeated myself. I looked over at the girl, who looked down at her feet, shamefully. I felt bad for her. "What's your name?" I asked.

She looked up at me with bewilderment. "Me?" She asked, pointing to herself.

I nodded and waited. _No, the elf girl standing behind you in this empty hallway. _I thought. She definitely was not the brightest crayon in the box.

"Myridia." She replied softly, smiling sweetly.

"That's a pretty name, Myridia." I said, trying to sound kind and sincere. "I'm not angry at all. Just remember to knock or something next time." I touched her shoulder reassuringly.

She beamed at me, grinning widely. "Next time? You mean you're not going to have your father throw me into Tartarus for being so stupid?"

"Uh…no…" I shot Thanatos a "what the fuck?" look.

She squealed and leapt at me, throwing her arms around my neck, before I could stop her. "Thank you! Thank you!" She cried.

My face went blood red and I just stood there, stunned, not knowing what to do.

Thanatos grabbed her by the waist and pulled her off of me. "Damn it, you little nymph! Control yourself!"

"Thank you so much, Lord Nikolas!" She said, happily, bowing lowly again. "I'll never forget your kind mercy!" She turned and skipped quickly away.

"Forgive her. She's a water nymph. She cannot help but be stupid." Thanatos sighed.

"Let's just go." I sighed. Having the soft and supple nymph wrapped around me did not help my sexual frustration.

He led me to Hades' throne room. It was a very large room, with high ceilings with stalagmites hanging down from them. The floor was made of solid obsidian. Two thrones sat at the back of the room, one gold, the other silver. Hades was sitting in the sliver one. Persephone sat on one of the steps that led up to the pedestal the thrones were on. I guessed that the gold one was hers, but Hades wasn't allowing her to sit in it. "There you are. I was beginning to think I was going to have to send a search party. What took you so long?"

"We had a little mishap with a nymph." Thanatos said, his thin, grayish, lips tweaking a little in one corner. So the guy did have a sense of humor.

"Really? What happened?" Hades asked Thanatos. His eyes shifted to me. "I don't mind you having fun with the help, son, but …"

"It wasn't like that." I blurted, startled by the high pitch of my own voice. I cleared my throat and brought the sound level back to normal.

"It's not important." Thantatos explained for me. "It was that new girl, Myridia. She got confused about an order I gave her and we had to deal with it. It was a minor mistake. It isn't worth your time, my Lord."

"Very well. Let's get on with business, shall we?" Hades began, clearing his throat. "We will talk about our arrangment while I show you around the Underworld." He got up and stepped down from the throne. Persephone shot up and followed behind. Hades glanced over at Thanatos. "Thanatos, another batch of the dead should be coming in shortly to be judged. Keep the souls busy while I am gone. I won't be too long. Also, I am expecting Demeter to come by to take Per-…Kore back with her." He corrected himself. Persephone placed a hand over her mouth and turned her head away, trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"So what kind of arrangement do you have in mind, Hades?" I asked as we walked slowly along the river Styx. I watched Charon take souls onto his boat out of the corner of my eye. He took coins from them as they climbed aboard, all the while whistling a happy tune. I wasn't quite sure how he was doing that without lips.

"Ideally, I would want you to forfeit your human life and stay here. I would renew your godhood and you would help me to rule the Underworld for the rest of eternity as it's prince." He said, "But I take it that this does not agree with you."

"Look, I understand that I'm your son and everything, but I don't think I'd make a very good god of the Underworld. I mean I didn't even graduate from high school. I dropped out my junior year. How the hell am I supposed to rule an entire spiritual realm?" I grumbled.

"You'd have me and the lesser gods like Thantos, Hypnos, Nyx and Charon to learn from. We will teach you what you have to know."

"Even so." I sighed. "My mother is back on earth…and so is Helena. I would miss them. I already do."

"Helena? Who is this?" He asked, cocking a black eyebrow at me.

"A…um…woman that I know." I stuttered, feeling my face warm again with infernal blushing.

"Your lover?" He guessed, almost smirking, but the smirk died almost as soon as it was born.

"Not exactly. We haven't done _that_ yet. Although I am interested. She's a very close friend. Let's put it that way." I said lowly. I felt awkward talking about this around Persephone.

"A woman is hardly a reason to give up your inheritence, my son." Hades said darkly. "Love is not for us Underworld gods, it belongs to those fools on Mount Olympus." He glared over his shoulder at Persephone, who flinched yet again. "I used to think differently and look what it got me. Stabbed straight in the back. I can still feel the sword in my heart." He growled. He pulled his cloak tigher around his frame and stalked on. "Tell you what," Hades began, wisely changing the subject before Persephone burst into tears. "We'll have something of a trial. You can stay here for a time as a god and undergo some of the training. When the trial is finished, then you can give me your answer as to whether or not you want to stay permanently."

"How long are we talking about?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking…" He began, but was cut off as a flying boy in a toga that was _way_ too short swooped over us.

"My lord." The boy greeted, as the tiny wings on his sandles flapped restlessly, helping him to hover in place like a humming bird.

"What is it, Hermes?" Hades asked.

"Demeter is here to retrieve Lady Persephone. She's waiting for you in the throne room."

"Thank you." Said Hades and the boy swiftly flew away.

I made a mental note that if I actually did become a god, my first task would be to get that guy some pants.

Wordlessly we marched back the way we'd come. As we walked I thought I noticed that the souls were drawing closer to us than they had before. Hades stopped abruptly and darted to Persephone. In an instant, he had a sword in his hand, swinging it at the souls who were too close to her. "Keep away from her!" He raged. "I swear I'll burn every last one of you!" The souls took his threat to heart and backed far away. With the threat gone, he took Persephone by the wrist and carted her back to where I was, keeping her close by. "You have to be more careful." Said Hades. "Keep close. I don't want the souls to grab you."

She nodded at him with hopeful eyes. At least the love was still there somewhere.

Hades caught himself holding her too closely and released her with a grumble deep in his chest.

"What was that all about?" I asked as he took his former place by my side, Persephone walking more closely behind us.

"Perseph-…Kore." He groaned, correcting himself again. "is a fertility goddess. She is the essence of life. The spirits recognize this. They yearn for it. Without my protection, they sometimes try to take her."

"I see. So you worry about her a lot, don't you?" I inquired, attempting to remind him of the love I could see was still there, buried under a lot of emotional pain and fresh distrust.

"She is a goddess. She could fight them off herself." He said.

"So why do you feel the need to protect her if she doesn't really need you?"

Hades' eyes flittered from me to Persephone then back to the path ahead. "Because she's my wife." He finally answered in a sad tone. His answer was plain and simple and full of truth. I understood. As her husband, it was his job to make sure nothing bad happened to her, even if she could defend herself. And from his tone, I could tell that he truly didn't want that to change.

As soon as we opened the throne room doors, Demeter rushed to Persephone and wrapped her arms around her. "Persephone! My darling, little Kore!" She cried, nestling Persephone's head in her bosom. That looked uncomfortably awkward. "Don't worry, sweet heart. Your mommy will take care of you." She cooed.

"Just take her and leave." Hades hissed beneath his breath. He stomped up the steps to his throne and collapsed into it, as if he had no energy left.

Persephone looked at him then to her mother and with a defeated sigh, she walked closer to her. She leaned into her imbrace, her head bowed and eyes down cast.

Demeter then wrapped a protective arm around her daughter's shoulders and smiled at Hades. I thought I felt Tartarus freeze over at that. Judging by Hades' gawking face, I wasn't the only one. "Thank you, Hades, for returning my daughter to me."

He grumbled something incoherent and leaned his cheek against his knuckles, his black eyes shifting away from the mother and daughter goddesses. "I should have done it a long time ago." He said lowly.

Persephone let out a small cry and buried her face in her mother's shoulder. I had officially reached my breaking point. "For the love of god, Persephone, tell Hades how you really feel! Tell him what you told me last night!" My eyes flashed to Hades and I pointed a demanding finger at him. "And you, forget your anger for just a minute and listen to her!"

Hades and Persephone stared at me in shock for a minute, then Hades nodded. "Fine. What do you have to say to me, Kore?" He asked calmly.

Persephone cleared her throat and walked towards him. "I don't want this, Hades. I don't want to leave. You say that the Underworld and you are the same, that hating this world is the same as hating you, but it is not so in my eyes. I may hate being here, but I love and adore you." She said smiling through tears. "I love you so very much. Even on my worst days here, you still find a way to make me smile." She walked up the steps and stood before his throne.

"If you love me as you say that you do, then why have you betrayed me? Why did you send our son away?"

"I did what I thought was best for him." She said, her hands reaching to cup his face. For ocne he didn't flinch from her touch. "I just wanted to keep him out of the Underworld, not away from you, but I had to to keep on earth. I never meant to hurt you, my love. Never." She beant and laid a kiss on his forehead.

"You didn't do this because I forced you to marry me? Or because of Mynthe?" He asked, his eyelids fluttering under her kiss. He reached up to lay his large hands over her smaller ones.

"No." She said, shaking her head at him, tears dripping from her eyes. "I did it because I loved our son. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I swear I will spend a hundred millinias making this up to you." She said, placing another sweet and childish kiss to his forehead, then another to corner of his mouth. "In fact, I will give up my spring to show you how sorry that I am."

Hades pulled away from her with a gasp. "What? Give up your spring?"

"Yes." She nodded. "If it will show you my sincerity, then yes, I will sacrifice my time away with my mother for as long as you see fit."

"Persephone! You can't do this!" Demeter cried.

Hades frowned up at Persephone. "You shame me. You think me so cruel that I would take away the thing that makes you happiest?"

Persephone cupped his face again and clutched his face to her chest, letting his cheek rest against her heart. "It is true that I will miss the spring, but I want you to forgive more than I want the sun. I don't want you to hate me anymore, Hades." Her tears splashed against his dark hair.

His arms, which had laid dorment on the armrests of his throne up until this point, snaked around her thin waist. He pulled her tighter against him. "Hate you? I was angry, but I could never hate you, Persephone." He said, his deep voice muffled by the fabric of her dress. "Would you be happy here with me, without your spring?"

"So long as you never left my side, I think that I could learn to be." She answered.

"I could not take your sun away from you forever." He said, rising from throne. He held her close and ran one of his thumbs across her cheekbone. "You will forefeit your time away from me for only one season, then the previous arrangement will presume." His eyes lifted to Demeter. "Does this suit you, sister? Will you leave her with me for this whole year? Or will I have to worry about you smighting the humans for this?"

Demeter narrowed her eyes at them. "It will be unseasonably cold this spring," her eyes softened as she sighed heavily, "but I will not ravage the earth as I once did. If this is her choice, and so long as she is returned to me next year, I will honor this arrangement."

"Thank you, mother." Persephone smiled gratefully.

"You are welcome, daughter. I think you could use the extra time to get to know your son better, anyway." She said, flashing me a grin. She walked over and gave me a hug. "Take good care of my Persephone for me, child."

"I will." I promised.

She began to walk towards the door of the throne room, but turned back once more. "Do not think that this means that we are on good terms, Hades. I still hate you with a passion."

"The feeling is mutual, Demeter." He smirked, wrapping his arm around Persephone's waist and pressing her posesively to his side.

With a grumble, Demeter faded away, returning to the upper world.

With her gone, Hades and Persephone began to speak in hushed voices and giving each other bedroom looks.

Thanatos came up to me and whispered in my ear. "I think it would be wise to return to your room now. Here, take these." He saind, handing me some ear plugs.

"What are these for?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at the things.

"Trust me. If you don't want to get scarred for life, wear them."


End file.
